1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording and/or reproducing apparatus in which a recording and/or reproducing unit driven by a drive shaft is moved along the drive shaft by displacing the drive shaft by an electromechanical transducer, and the drive shaft is protected from dust or the like by a cover unit.
2. Description of the Background Art
A disc recorder/player that records or reproduces data to or from an optical disc that is a disc-shaped recording medium includes a disc rotation drive mechanism to rotate the optical disc, an optical pickup to write or read an information signal to or from the optical disc being rotatably driven by the disc rotation drive mechanism, and a pickup feeding mechanism to move the optical pickup radially along the optical disc. These components are disposed on a base of the apparatus body.
The disc rotation drive mechanism has a disc table integrally installed to a drive shaft of a spindle motor and on which an optical disc is to be placed. The optical pickup writes data to the optical disc by focusing a light beam emitted from a light source onto a signal recording layer of the optical disc through an objective lens to write data to the optical disc. The optical pickup reads data from the optical disc by detecting, from the optical disc, a return light from the optical disc (a part of the light beam focused on the signal recording layer).
The pickup feeding mechanism that feeds the above optical pickup radially along the optical disc includes a guide shaft to support the optical pickup to be movable radially along the optical disc, and a feed screw that is rotated by a drive motor to feed the optical pickup radially along the optical disc. The optical pickup is moved from the inner circumference to outer circumference of the optical disc, for example, along the guide shaft as the feed screw is rotated by the drive motor and data is written or read.